State to issue new similar-school rankings, growth targets

A second wave of statewide rankings that compares schools on
national and demographic levels is due out Tuesday.

The numbers are a part of the second statewide Academic
Performance Index, which was first released in October and included
scores based on how well students did on the Stanford Achievement
Test, Ninth Edition, which second- through 11th-graders took last
spring.

The new numbers, which are a part of Gov. Gray Davis'
educational reform campaign, will show how schools rank with others
of similar demographics, including ethnicity, class size, family
income and parents' education.

The state uses the index to create two separate rankings, one
comparing each school score to that of 6,700 schools statewide, the
other comparing each to 100 schools with similar socioeconomic
characteristics. A rank of 1 is the lowest; 10 is the highest. The
index will also show the school's new academic growth targets,
based on API scores released last year.

But some educators, such as Temecula Trustee Barbara Tooker, are
skeptical of the accuracy of the rankings based on demographics.
She said that because not every school is identical, the rankings
may be inaccurate.

"One good thing about the (index) is it helps parents who have
been asking for years how their local schools compare with other
schools," Tooker said. "But I've always been truly amazed to think
we can be paired or matched up with other districts that have the
same demographics. It's difficult to do that because we can get
within range, but that's about as close as we can get."

The performance index is the central part of the Public Schools
Accountability Act of 1999, endorsed by the governor and has two
main goals: to rank California public schools by how well they
educate students and to bring schools out of their academic
doldrums by educating students better.

In October, the index showed school scores from a low score of
200 to a high of 1,000. Schools at 250 or below are considered to
be low-performing, while those with a score of 800 or above are
considered high-performing.

Schools that show improvement in the API scores qualify for up
to $150 per student, plus cash bonuses for teachers. If a school's
scores deteriorate over three years, the state could move in and
run the school.

Schools that score below 800 are expected to improve every year
by 5 percent of the gap between their scores and 800. With only a
few exceptions, Southwest County schools met -- and in some cases
greatly surpassed -- their goals for improvement under the state's
new accountability system. Now they get to see how they stack up
against their peers and the state's schools as a whole.

State Department of Education spokesman Doug Stone said he
expected schools to improve under the new system that sets growth
targets.

"Last year, 71 percent of California schools met their targets
and that's phenomenal," said Stone. "Schools are competing against
themselves and hopefully, with these new targets, they will
continue with the same progress and momentum."